The Audacious Offer This Freedman Couldn’t Wait To Refuse

black family sitting down in grass
Via facinghistory
Tremain Prioleau II
November 14, 2024

In the summer of 1865, Jordan Anderson’s former enslaver, Colonel P.H. Anderson, sent him a letter.  The colonel had the nerve to beg Jordan to return to the Tennessee farm he’d worked while enslaved.

Colonel Anderson was shedding crocodile tears about the farm going under. The only way to save it was for Jourdan and his wife Mandy to come back. Jordan had the perfect response for this crybaby.

In his dictated letter, Jordan informed the colonel that he and Mandy were happy in Dayton, Ohio. Jordan demanded all his back pay plus the interest owed for their unpaid labor: 32 years for himself and 20 for Mandy. He also expected to be paid consistently.

Jordan never returned to that god-forsaken farm.  He died in Ohio in 1905. His letter didn't express guilt or pity for his former enslaver. He asserted his power over whiteness. The colonel was desperate for Jordan to give up his new life, but Jordan adamantly refused, telling his enslaver you better respect me and run me everything I'm worth.

We don't have to take the crumbs thrown at us by whiteness and capitalism.  Our humanity and self-worth is our power against it and the disease of allowing ourselves to be treated like trash.

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